Sorry, Christian Bale, Ron Howard Wants Javier Bardem for The Dark Tower
Posted 01.28.11 by BrentJS
Only days ago, The New York Post reported that Christian Bale, hot off of his Golden Globe win for The Fighter, had become the top choice to play gunslinger Roland Deschain in Ron Howard's planned adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower, edging out Javier Bardem and Viggo Mortensen, who were originally thought to be the frontrunners for the part. Now, according to Deadline, Howard and Universal have made their decision, but it's not Bale they want. Deadline's anonymous source(s) have revealed that the part has "officially been offered" to Bardem.
King describes The Dark Tower series of books as his magnum opus. Comprised of one short story and seven novels, with an eighth in the works, The Dark Tower combines elements of fantasy, horror, science fiction and Westerns and focuses on Roland Deschain's quest to find the fabled Dark Tower, which is said to be the nexus of all realities. Universal's plan for the franchise is to tell King's story through a trilogy of movies linked by two TV series. Akiva Goldsman (The Da Vinci Code) wrote the first movie and plans on writing the first TV series; Howard would direct the first movie and the first TV series.